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Haldi’s menu is a delightful compendium of cultural references to the city of Kolkata in West Bengal, India, drawing on the culinary traditions of Bengalis, the British Raj, Marwari migrants from Rajasthan, Kolkata’s Chinatown (the birthplace of Indian Chinese cuisine) and the city’s small but once influential community of Baghdadi Jews.

At Little Park, Andrew Carmellini and his chef de cuisine, Min Kong, are working out their ideas from scratch; this may be why the best dishes there seem more fresh, natural and intuitive than what’s on Mr. Carmellini's other menus.

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At Masha and the Bear, the horseradish vodka is infused in-house and stored in pressurized kegs to avoid exposure to air; Anya Vasilenko, the chef, cleaves to tradition with dishes like ukha, a fish soup purportedly beloved by Ivan the Terrible, and Herring in a Fur Coat, a salad born of the Russian Revolution, uniting proletarian herring and peasant potatoes under a mantle of beets in Bolshevik red.

Haldi’s menu is a delightful compendium of cultural references to the city of Kolkata in West Bengal, India, drawing on the culinary traditions of Bengalis, the British Raj, Marwari migrants from Rajasthan, Kolkata’s Chinatown (the birthplace of Indian Chinese cuisine) and the city’s small but once influential community of Baghdadi Jews.

At Little Park, Andrew Carmellini and his chef de cuisine, Min Kong, are working out their ideas from scratch; this may be why the best dishes there seem more fresh, natural and intuitive than what’s on Mr. Carmellini's other menus.

Both the kitchen and the dining room staff try as hard as any to bring delight to the table with every course at Eleven Madison Park, and they succeed so often that only the most determinedly grumpy souls could resist.

In spirit, Le Marécage is meant to evoke the maquis, the populist open-air restaurants of Ivory Coast, where the chef, Mamadou Bamba, grew up. His wife, Ivrose, a native of Haiti, runs the front of the house with a spirited tableside manner, a holdover from her days as a nurse. The menu draws from West Africa and the Caribbean, with flourishes and improvisations that show off the skills Mr. Bamba refined as a longtime instructor at the French Culinary Institute.

The chef Josh Capon and the restaurateur John McDonald, the pair behind Lure Fishbar and El Toro Blanco, have brought forth a “meat company” whose website says it is “not a traditional steakhouse, but a balanced meat-centric menu.” Bowery Meat Company is not, in fact, a menu. But it does have a menu, and on it you will find seven cuts of beef plus a burger, potatoes cooked four ways, and a spinach side dish.

This Filipino restaurant, in a stretch of Queens known as Little Manila, feels spacious and sleepy, operating at the pace of a desultory ceiling fan. The menu is congenial, offering unlimited rice, all-day breakfast and street specialties like grilled pork intestines and kwek-kwek (deep-fried quail eggs).

La Morada’s married owners, Natalia Mendez and Antonio Saavedra, were once farmers in Oaxaca, which is one of the poorest states in Mexico but whose cuisine is among the country’s richest. While much of the menu is taken up by tacos and quesadillas, a few dishes offer a glimpse of the “infinite gastronomy” that is Oaxacan cooking.

Jody Williams, who shares responsibility for Via Carota’s Italian menu with Rita Sodi, has filled Via Carota with flea-market triumphs that give the dining room an ambient level of cuteness that is balanced by an Italian severity. The two chefs cook food that is deeply appealing, without mugging. Ms. Sodi is a stickler about the pastas; like the meat and fish dishes, they aren’t any more complicated than they need to be.

An izakaya is an informal Japanese establishment, neither quite restaurant nor tavern, that treats eating as fortification for drinking. But Dai Watanabe, the chef here, is not content to be an accompanist. The mission may be comfort food, but there’s a reverence to its making, even in the minor dishes.

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Jody Williams, who shares responsibility for Via Carota’s Italian menu with Rita Sodi, has filled Via Carota with flea-market triumphs that give the dining room an ambient level of cuteness that is balanced by an Italian severity. The two chefs cook food that is deeply appealing, without mugging. Ms. Sodi is a stickler about the pastas; like the meat and fish dishes, they aren’t any more complicated than they need to be.Complete Review »

At this cheerful, unassuming storefront, Manadsanan Sutipayakul is cooking for the neighborhood: the clientele is mostly Thai, the dishes comforting rather than showy. Her daughters make the desserts, which include sizzling platters designed to make you gasp or giggle.Complete Review »

The chef Josh Capon and the restaurateur John McDonald, the pair behind Lure Fishbar and El Toro Blanco, have brought forth a “meat company” whose website says it is “not a traditional steakhouse, but a balanced meat-centric menu.” Bowery Meat Company is not, in fact, a menu. But it does have a menu, and on it you will find seven cuts of beef plus a burger, potatoes cooked four ways, and a spinach side dish. Complete Review »